Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sorry I haven't updated in like 6 weeks, my life is full of clutter at present. Couple of things, I will be a writer for Michael-Myers.net and have a few articles I'm getting together at present that will end up on the home page, so my thanks to Derek for letting me write about horror on one of the greatest horror sites on the web. Whatever gets published there I'll probably throw up on here too.

Also my part 6 sculpt has been molded, but the mold was damaged during de-molding, which I finally finished repairing today. The prototype pull will be done later this week or this weekend.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Occasionally I use this blog to veer off topic into intellectual aspects of Friday the 13th or horror in general. This is one of those times.

I was thinking today, having begun a new job in the non-profit world with a bunch of people who are, well, not devout horror fans like myself and would probably raise an eyebrow if they knew I have been painting hockey masks for the past two years. Not that their opinion matters of course, but it made me consider... how would I explain it? What is the appeal of horror, one, for those of us who adore it so, and two, for the rest of culture?

I've never really read any good articles on the topic, but I can say, without equivocation, that the Jason mask is globally iconic symbol. Looking at google stats, my blog viewers here (you guys) are not just in the U.S. and Canada, but in Japan, UK, Norway, Finland, Germany, Chile, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand etc. The iconic hockey mask has a global appeal, a fact which many non-horror fans find puzzling and sometimes... disturbing. Why do all these people love a fictional killer so much?

I find horror an incredibly fascinating genre, always have, always will. I don't just love contemporary horror, I even watch the early stuff, like the primitive but incredible Expressionist film Nosferatu (1922) and recently watched the earliest filmed version of Frankenstein from 1910. While somewhat challenging to sit through at times, these early experiments in horror, lacking even basic technologies like color and sound, were forced to get creative in order to convey the terror they were trying to get across. Hence, Graf Orlock's grotesque and innovative appearance and some killer scenes that are to this day among the most iconic in the genre.

Horror has evolved quite a bit since then, but I think its the only genre of film that explores, and by necessity, pushes the boundaries of what society considers acceptable forms of celluloid entertainment. Over the past 100 years it has explored and woven together mysticism and occultism, ancient folklore and modern urban legends, the depths of human depravity, mental illness and self-righteous retribution. It can often tell cautionary tales, as with Friday the 13th, about being too fancy free in your teen years, or just gross you out (like "Hatchet"), but its guaranteed to get Roger Ebert's blood boiling. Ebert hated the original Friday the 13th, incredibly tame by modern standards, so much he posted Betsy Palmer's contact info on his TV show so his viewers could send her hate mail! What a fuck nut.

Having been a part of the slasher/horror community for over two years now, it seems to me that artists are attracted to horror, which is part of what has made it so comfortable for me. Horror and sci-fi definitely have some of the best visuals and creature designs in film, some of the most innovative and instantly recognizable characters (from Dracula to Freddy and Pinhead) and there always seems to be a lot of mysteries to unlock (like Pinhead's little box, for example). The best horror is about what it doesn't show you, what it leaves to your imagination. Watching Paranormal Activity for the first time today, I can say the writer really understands horror. The villain is never seen but only implied, and some of the most terrifying moments take place off-camera. Horror is a genre for thinkers and explorers as well as artists, as well as nearly anyone who can appreciate the darker realities of our existence.

Horror is often about gore as well, which has been one of the sticking points that ruffles the feathers of the world's soccer moms and evangelical preachers who have tried to clamp down on horror in the past for fear it taint their "culture" or their "children" or whatever they try to tell us. Like rock and roll, hip hop and other edgy genres, horror isn't doing its job if someone isn't pissed off, calling up the MPAA or their congressmen to get some exploitation film banned in the U.S., thereby ensuring cult status. Sean Cunningham's "Last House on the Left", probably his greatest work next to Friday the 13th, showed people their own grisly reality. No monsters, no demons or witches, just vicious murdering rapists. Real life horror as entertainment raises all kinds of issues for censors and soccer moms that they don't like to admit exist and don't want to deal with, and there is something incredibly real in that. "Halloween" for example is about latent evil beneath the veneer of peace in 20th century American suburbia. Not something your average middle class family likes to hear about.

The intense, visceral experience most people can't help but feel during their first viewing of "Last House on the Left" is something you don't get from watching "The Ten Commandments" or even "The Godfather." Horror stands alone in providing that experience. Other genres try to make people feel inspired or entertained, but horror really challenges people, really gets adrenaline and testosterone circulating, and can leave you drained or feeling... changed. If you don't believe me, go watch "Salo" (1975) and tell me it didn't make you ill. Now try to name a film from a more "acceptable" mainstream genre that provided that intense of an experience. "Titanic" maybe? Haha. By the way, people in Italy were so horrified by "Salo" they lynched the director, even though he merely presented a film version of literature written by the Marquis de Sade in the seventeenth century. Intense.

I think that's what I really like about it. Like with music, I don't think its really worth much if it isn't drawing you in and turning your brain into hamburger it isn't horror. It may not be enlightening or have a positive message, but who wants to listen to that shit anyway?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

After a lot of study on these, I finally have an ultimate Ultimate III and this one is going to be my final keeper, and very likely, the final Ultimate III I will ever produce. Thanks to photo enhancements and a lot of trial and error with hocks I am finally satisfied with the accuracy of this thing down to the cracks, the eye shapes and sizes, the color and the straps, etc. are all dead on to the movie mask, making this the most accurate reproduction of the original to date. The owners of the other six will have a rare piece indeed. I had Richard Brooker sign this at Monster Mania last Saturday as well, so its not leaving my collection.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Last year I posted that a restaurant owner in Warren, CT was claiming that the final battle scene in Friday the 13th part 2 was actually filmed in the basement of his barn, directly behind the Rooster Tail Inn. After talking with cast members John Furey and Amy Steel at Monster Mania yesterday, as well as other sources close to the filming, the truth has been revealed. The Rooster Tail barn was used as a prop shop during shooting, but no filming was done there. The final battle was filmed, according to Amy and John, at the Jason shack built on the west side of North Spectacle Pond by the crew as it appears on film.

On a related note I had a blast at Monster Mania and had a great time talking to John Furey, Bill Randolph and the ever-lovely Lauren Marie Taylor, as well as V.C. Dupree and Richard Brooker. The cast members seem at least as excited about doing conventions and meeting fans as the fans are and everyone was wonderful to meet. Because I was only there Saturday and spent most of the day at Q&A's I didn't get to meet Sean Cunningham or Kane Hodder, but hopefully future conventions will remedy that. My interest in all things Jason has been waning lately as other parts of my life have taken center stage, but a great convention reaffirms your love for the franchise and its characters, as always.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sunday, May 22, 2011

After five months of sculpting this bad boy is finally done and will be molded shortly. I went for painstaking faithfulness to the original Brian Wade sculpt and am very pleased with the results. Thanks for looking!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

So I've gotten a little burned out on hocks lately and there are a lot of other things I need to spend time on... my sculpt is certainly one of them. So aside from my current agreements with a handful of customers, I will not be accepting new hock orders until further notice. Might take a month or two and focus on other stuff, assuming my other income sources hold.

You may, however, see a few new hocks anyway on here... I have four more customer's masks to do, and still need to do a LOT for my own collection, which is incredibly sparse at present. And I need to finish my frickin sculpt!!! I'm finally satisfied with the form and I've begun detailing and it looks soooooooo coool.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I've always been fascinated by the opening sequence of 'Friday the 13th'. It offers the only glimpse we ever really see into Camp Crystal Lake in its prime in the summer of 1958, before its reputation as "Camp Blood" and its decades-long history of teen murders... yellow-shirted counselors sit peacefully around a camp fire singing traditional American songs while the young campers... Jason's contemporaries, some of whom would have known him before his drowning the previous summer... sleep peacefully, oblivious to the horror that was about to commence.

It is never made explicit that the first two murder victims of Camp Crystal Lake, Barry and Claudette, were the ones responsible for Jason's drowning the prior year, but it seems like a logical conclusion. Their brutal deaths, his from a machete to the abdomen, hers (offscreen) by a machete across the throat by the demented camp cook, twenty-eight-year-old Pamela Voorhees, set it all up-- you have sex, you die.

As little as we are shown of the 1958 murders, we seem to know even less about the actors who played them. According to CampBlood.net, the actors, Willie Adams and Debra S. Hayes were dating in real life when they filmed their short but historic roles as the first victims. Willie's IMDb shows Friday the 13th and nothing else... same with her. No further film career, no horror convention appearances I am aware of, no definite facebook or LinkedIn presence, no interviews, nothing on google. Would be interesting to know what happened to these two.